Election day is Nov. 4 and there is little drama in the races that Brookfield voters will have a say in. Two trustees and three school board incumbents are running for re-election with no opposition, and there are no Brookfield levy requests on the ballot.
Brookfield trustees Dan Suttles and Mark Ferrara both are running for re-election. Suttles is completing his second four-year term and Ferrara his first.
Trustee salaries are set by the Ohio General Assembly and differ according to the size of the township budget. If re-elected, Suttles and Ferrara will each make $20,910 a year, said Brookfield Fiscal Officer Dena McMullin. Trustees also have access to the township’s healthcare coverage.
Brookfield Board of Education members Jerry Necastro, Derek Mihalcin and Ronda Bonekovic also want to re-up. Necastro, who is in his second stint on the board, was appointed in December 2020 to fill the position of a school board member who resigned, and was elected to a four-year term in November 2021. Mihalcin, the current board president, was appointed to a two-year term in January 2021 to fill a position that no one ran for the previous November. He was elected to a two-year term in November 2023. Bonekovic, the longest serving member of the school board with more than two decades of service, also is running again.
School board members are paid $125 a month if they attend at least one board meeting and can access the district’s healthcare plan if they pay the full premium, said district Treasurer Jordan Weber.
Brookfield voters will weigh in on the Trumbull County Children’s Services Board’s request for the renewal of a 2-mill, five-year levy. The levy raises $7 million a year and it costs a property with an appraised value of $100,000 $47 a year, the county commissioners said.
Although Brookfield voters will not decide the fate of a Hartford Township fire levy, the outcome of the vote will affect Brookfield Fire Department. Hartford trustees are seeking a renewal of their township’s 2-mill, five-year fire levy, the proceeds of which are used to pay Brookfield Fire Department for fire and emergency medical services under a contract that expires Dec. 31.
